What The If?

Happy New Year, fellow IF-ers!!! We taped a bunch of shows at the end of the year, so we're starting out 2022 with a bang: we're posting a brand new WTIF episode every day this week! Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Happy New Year, fellow IF-ers!!! We taped a bunch of shows at the end of the year, so we're starting out 2022 with a bang: we're posting a brand new WTIF episode every day this week! Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Happy New Year, fellow IF-ers! We taped a bunch of shows at the end of the year, so we're starting out 2022 with a bang: a brand new WTIF episode every day this week! Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Got an IF of your own? - Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? - Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! - Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

The fearless and fabulous DR. ROBIN GEORGE ANDREWS joins us for an explosive IF! Robin George Andrews is a science journalist with a PhD in volcanology. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic, National Geographic, Scientific American, Atlas Obscura, and other publications. He lives in London, England. HOT off the press, his new book, "SUPERVOLCANOES: What They Reveal About Earth and the Worlds Beyond" is an anthology of magmatic mountains and fiery fountains, revels in the incomparable power of volcanoes and their eruptions. But it does more than marvel at their preternatural abilities. It also explores how their idiosyncratic, incredible displays of incandescence, past and present, reveal secrets about both themselves and the worlds to which they belong: from the forces that sculpt the sea, land and sky to the machinery that makes or breaks the existence of life. All volcanoes play their part on these dramatic planetary stages, but those in this book – those on Earth, above and below

Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

In one corner, the welter weight challenger, Quantum Mechanics! In the other corner, the veteran, the heavyweight, the titan, destroyer of apples: GRAVITY! These guys just CAN'T GET ALONG. What The IF, asks our brilliant guest, Astronomer Brian Keating... they will NEVER come together? Is science DOOMED to failure? Was Einstein too fussy? What if it's all just a scrambled mess and DAT'S DA WAY IT IZ, YO! Dr. Keating takes us to the front line, where theorists and experimentalists hunker down in the trenches, trying to figure it ALL out. It's a titanic clash of cosmologies, bring your helmet! Brian Keating is a Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of physics at the Center for Astrophysics & Space Sciences (CASS) in the Department of Physics at the University of California, San Diego. He is a public speaker, inventor, and an expert in the study of the universe’s oldest light, the cosmic microwave background (CMB), using it to learn about the origin and evolution of the universe. Keating is a writer and pod

What The IF... the ORIGIN of LIFE was on your desktop? What if it WAS your desktop? How does non-life become LIFE? Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Our listener, Super IFFer CHRIS in Vancouver asks: "Is it conceivably possible that a virus could have POSITIVE symptoms? Say by commandeering olfactory cells and cranking the smell knobs to 11? Would be a much more interesting world if viral infections led to super powers until your immune system fought them off, rather than just feeling like you’ve been hit by a truck." What the IF...? Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Put Your Mettle To Your Pedal Listener ED from Brooklyn writes in and asks, “What the IF there were no cars, only bicycles?” And we take up the challenge, thus granting Ed a battlefield promotion to Super IFFer status! We take Ed’s question and kick it up a notch, BAM!, pushing it to the limit: WTIF there were NO INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES??? How far could we go with only pedal power? Could we build the Empire State Building using only human power and gears and chains? Could we have mass transit? Unlock your bike, and unlock your brains — don’t forget your helmet — crank into top gear and let’s find out what happens when BIKES RULE THE WORLD! --- Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&l

The Serious Search For Extraterrestrial Life We are thrilled and honored to have the esteemed Astronomer AVI LOEB join us for this week’s very special thought experiment. Avi says, “Asking ‘what if’ is my job!” Yes, friends, we have a genuine Professional IFFer in the house! The founder of THE GALILEO PROJECT joins us to play out a thought experiment: let’s imagine how this experiment — a serious SCIENTIFIC search for VERIFIABLE evidence of Extraterrestrials — might play out. Avi reveals the difficulties in keeping such a hunt truly scientific, devoid of speculation, unaccepting of eyewitness testimony, relying only on hard evidence that is captured and verified by multiple sources, vetted by the most careful analysis. Ya know, the scientific method! But Avi also shares with us the human challenge, the massive resistance from his colleagues in science academia. He helps us understand his passionate belief that fear of failure or, perhaps even worse, fear of criticism has led to timidity in science. This

Luis, Mike and Rather specialize in discussing UFO's with skeptics and believers, and through laughter, love and logic, bringing people together to find common ground in our shared fascination and joy for imagination and the pursuit of science. Does the stigma around UFO's, even if logical, help science or hurt it? Can science communicators harness the incredible interest in UFO's for the benefit of science? Is the UFO debate an opportunity for learning how to discuss difficult issues by learning to become aware of your reflexive emotions and learning to listen to each other? Can that learn to gaining respect, building alliances, and helping the media and our educational institutions teach science better? Can deescalation lead to better education, and happier humans? This week, in this special roundtable discussion with a trio of guys who are creating a larger, safer space for nuanced discussions where scientific and skeptically minded folks can meet on the shores of Woo Beach with all kinds of other folk

Terraforming via MOLE? In this encore presentation of one of our most popular episodes -- when we tried out a new format called "Fantastic Voyage" -- Captain GABY takes us to the RED PLANET, and has brought along some of her favorite animals, naked mole rats, to help make the place livable, lovable, and lucrative. Who needs Elon Musk when you have naked mole rats leading the way? Is it possible to bring these real life creatures to Mars to slowly terraform it, cultivating the land from underneath, rebuilding the atmosphere, for eventual Earth-like living? Let's find out! Join documentary filmmaker Philip Shane, NYU Historian of Science Matthew Stanley, and Rockefeller University virologist Gaby Paniccia as we take a fantastic journey to learn the magical wonders of biology... up close... and in living AUDIO color! --- Like the show? Share your love for the IF by dropping a review on Apple Podcasts! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Have you subscribed? Grab one (always free!) at pod.link/1

WHALES spend their entire lives inside a medium, water, in which they can’t actually breathe. So throughout the day, and the night, they have to swim to the surface to take a breath of that sweet, sweet ocean air… or they die! We humans, and other land lubber mammals like us, are spoiled, just inhale, anytime you want, and… problem solved. But — What The IF humans had to breathe by dunking our head in water? The amazing Dr. Vanessa Pirotta joins us from Sydney, Australia to take us into the wet and wild thought experiment, so we can learn real science! Imagine living the life of the whale, turned on it’s head. What world would we have built if our bodies worked this way? It’s like what if we emerged from the oceans, as we believe life did, but never adapted to breathing outside the water like we used to. Humans with gills? Are we wearing helmets on our head that are filled with water? Do we fill our *buildings* with water? Water the IF! — Dr. Pirotta is a wildlife scientist and a gifted science commun

Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

NO HOME TO PHONE! What The IF... there were NO ALIENS in the universe? No life anywhere except Earth. You want a planet with life? You’re standing on it, and THAT’S ALL ya get! CHRIS COGSWELL joins us to imagine how life on Earth would be affected by the proof that LIFE DOESN’T FIND A WAY, it’s no where, nothing to be found, nothing to see here, go home to your blue planet, that’s the only place anything lives in the entire universe. Chris is the host and creator of THE MAD SCIENTIST PODCAST, a comedy show about the history and philosophy of science and pseudoscience. https://www.themadscientistpodcast.com Chris received his Bachelors of Science degree from the University of New Hampshire in both Chemical Engineering and Philosophy, and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University.The Mad Scientist Podcast was initially conceived as a means of interacting with the public, teaching them the science and philosophical background of common pop science concepts, in order to help combat the spr

What The IF... you could see the TRUE SCALE of the Universe? We imagine entering the notorious torture device from he dastardly mind of the great Douglas Adams. Tune in to find out how it feels, and bring a BIG EGO and a hunger for fairy cake because this is a mind expanding adventure if you have a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny HUMAN MIND. Don't Panic! ---- Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback@whattheif.com and let us know what's in your imagination. No idea is too small, or too big! --- Want to support the show? Click a rating or add a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app! itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1250517051?mt=2&ls=1 Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe at WhatTheIF.com Keep On IFFin', Philip, Matt & Gaby

Matt's away and the team trashes the studio with a teetotaling, time traveling, mixer of the mind! We're joined by our Senior Research intern, Gabi Vardanega who has brought along her friend, the brilliant Laura Marques da Silva who has contributed a bunch of fabulous show ideas for us over the past year. To celebrate their post-pandemic summer break at NYU, we surf through the multiverse, exploring one of Laura's favorite IF's: TIME TRAVEL. In this more freeform, summer style show we share our favorite Science Fiction books, movies and shows that have blown our minds with their time travel concepts. We also take a moment to visit Stephen Hawking's legendary "Party for Time Traveler's" and Gaby P. has a bold hypothesis for why no one showed up except Stephen, maybe the party was lame? Ya know, if you're a time traveler, there are so many parties you can be attending, and if the host, Dr. Hawking, doesn't send out invitations until days after the event, it's clearly a trap! So get your swimming goggles and s

In honor of Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos putting their butts on the launch pad, we salute the spirit of hot rods in space with this encore presentation of one our most popular episodes. Fasten your safety belt and -- aw, screw it, just hop in and hit the gas, let's goooooooo!!! --- Using gravity waves, Astronomers announced they discovered two neutron stars colliding in an epic explosion! Forbes Magazine's favorite fact about this natural wonder is that the event created 28 Octillion Dollars worth of Gold! (Priorities, people, c'mon.) Everyone says the global race to space won't really begin until we find some kind of (boring, so boring) natural material (yawn) to mine (geez, really) on some asteroid, moon or planet. What do people really love on Earth? Oil! What the IF oil (sticky, smokey, delicious) oil were found on Mars? A bazillion tons of it! Would Elon Musk's dreams of a massive Mars-based corporate economy erupt, using all that cheap, stinky oil? What would happen on Earth with all this insanely

Water, water... nowhere! An IF from YOU, our audience! Super Uber Duper IFFer Kyle CRICHTON writes in and asks, What The IF... there were NO OCEANS? Perhaps Kyle wrote this while on the way to the beach? No parking at the shore is bad enough, but no shore are the shore? Yikes! Of course it all happened one dark and stormy night when Aliens came by and slurped our oceans away to feed their voracious thirst -- the ultimate BIG GULP. But the next morning when we all wake up to see the parched basins that now cover seventy-five percent of the globe, what do we do? How do we survive? And what's that SMELL??? Biology, Geology, and more-ologies than you can shake a blanket at bubble up from the damp sands to tell a tale of SCIENCE, fueled by the expertise of Matt and Gaby. Can we play when there's nothin' but playa? AAAAAAHHHH! Listen up, and prepare an ENDLESS SUMMER... What The IF you dare! Got an IF of your own? Want to have us consider your idea for a show topic? Send YOUR IF to us! Email us at feedback